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Field Notes: An Exploration of Functional Medicine


Nov 16, 2020

Today Dr. Rob Downey speaks with Tom Blue, Partner at OvationLab, They discuss why functional medicine is a good idea and why the business aspect is important to the viability of functional medicine being an option for everyone.

 

Timestamps:

[01:17] Where does Tom fit-in in the functional medicine universe?

[06:47] What makes functional medicine “profitable”- for patients, practitioners, and shareholders

[14:33] The realization that disease management has become a “diagnosis delusion” for many

[19:29] Whats “new” in functional medicine on the macroscopic scale?

[28:14] The co-emergence of the same truths in multiple domains in functional medicine

[35:42] Why telemedicine was a long-time-coming, even before the pandemic

 

 

 

Tom Blue has dedicated most of the last 20 years to intensively researching and synthesizing new approaches to accelerate the application of emerging science and research in the day-to-day practice of primary care and personal health management. He is a healthcare entrepreneur with an impressive record of catalyzing innovative clinical and practice management businesses that serve providers, payers, patients and industry including:

  • VirtualPractices.org, an initiative to support functional and integrative medicine practitioners in capitalizing on their training to create value for patients in the COVID-era
  • LeadHealth (acquired in 2019 by Empowered Education) the first employer health organization dedicated to utilizing Functional Medicine and chronic disease-focused bundled episodes of care to reduce healthcare costs for self-insured employers and health plans
  • LivingMatrix, the most widely used patient information management system by Functional Medicine practitioners (acquired in 2019 by Nestle Health Science)
  • Liberty Direct, the nation’s first ACA exempt, DPC-integrated medical cost sharing program, (acquired by Liberty Healthshare in 2016)

Tom is a founding partner of OvationLab and in addition to a number of business advisory roles, he serves as a member of the Board of the American Nutrition Association; an industry strategy advisor to theInstitute for Functional Medicine; a member of the Leadership Council for the Personalized LifestyleMedicine Institute; and served for nearly ten years, as the Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer of the American Academy of Private Physicians, the national professional association for concierge and direct primary care (DPC) physicians.